1. Field
The present specification relates to an apparatus including a relatively large display screen and a touch panel, such as a cell phone, a mobile information terminal, or a personal computer, and a method for inputting information to the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some cell phones include a display device having a relatively large display screen, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic electro-luminescence (EL) display, and a touch panel.
In such cell phones, an input unit is formed from display information displayed on the display screen of the display device and the touch panel. By touching the touch panel with, for example, a finger, a user can input various information to the cell phone.
In addition, in order to allow the user to operate a cell phone in a more intuitive way, a multi-touch operation in which a user can touch their fingers on the touch panel and move the fingers (i.e., a gesture operation) is provided.
More specifically, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2009-522669 describes a mobile electronic apparatus having a multi-touch input function that allows a user to perform gesture input (e.g., pinch input) by detecting and recognizing a multi-touch operation.
In general, existing information processing apparatuses allow only a touch operation on a touch panel. However, a multi-touch input operation as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2009-522669 allows a user to a new operation that was not previously possible in other existing apparatuses. Thus, the multi-touch input operation provides further user-friendly electronic apparatuses.
However, the multi-touch operation as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2009-522669 is recognized only when the user touches the surface of a touch panel (i.e., a two-dimensional operation). Thus, the multi-touch operation is included in a category of existing touch operations, since the multi-touch operation is a touch operation on a touch panel.
Therefore, in order to provide ease of operation to the user, it is desirable that an information processing apparatus that receives a user operation allow a user to perform a further intuitive operation in addition to a multi-touch operation.